When Opportunity Knocks

When Opportunity Knocks

I wonder how often I get so caught up in my own “lesson plan”, that when the opportunity to learn knocks on the door for my students, they’re far too busy to answer that door? Are they busy learning or busy doing what I’ve told them to do? I wonder how many times my words, my thoughts, and my plans actually get in the way of their thinking? These are questions I constantly ask myself. Am I giving them the opportunities they need?

We have to know when to step in, when to guide, and when to step back and let them answer the knock. What program will work best to create this project? What website is most reliable? What book should I use to reference this? How many sentences should my paragraph have in it? What’s the best way to build this cardboard scale model of a pyramid? This can be scary at first and it can be challenging to step aside. But, it can also be the chance for kids to open the door to a whole new kind of learning… the real, authentic, powerful kind.

Thanks to Sean Junkins for the tweet on this poster. A reminder of what our kids are capable of.